Delhi univs voice support for banned Ramayan

Students and teachers from two universities in Delhi voice their support for A. K. Ramanujan's essay, 300 Ramayanas.

advertisement

Suhas Munshi

Rohan Venkataramakrishnan

New Delhi

November 17, 2011

UPDATED: November 17, 2011 16:24 IST

Students and teachers from two universities in Delhi assembled on Wednesday to express their support in favour of retaining A. K. Ramanujan's essay, 300 Ramayanas. They also had a discussion on the various translations of the Ramayana.

While those gathered at Delhi University held a candlelight march, the scholars gathered at Ambedkar University were audience to a short documentary called Anek Ramayana.

The gathering at the DU campus saw about 50 people marching from the department of history to the faculty of arts, shouting slogans against the administration and the growing influence of communalism on academia.

"Basically, we're trying to mobilise opinion both within the university and outside. We are trying to use democratic ways to express our demand," said Pankaj Jha, a professor of history at Lady Shri Ram college. "The only thing that will really satisfy us in the end is for the essay to be reinstated in the syllabus."

The march was preceded by a panel of professors discussing the impact of the decision to drop the essay, written by renowned scholar A. K. Ramanujan. History professor and daughter of the Prime Minister, Dr Upinder Singh chaired the meet.

"In the face of all this intimidation... it seems like the space for academics to express themselves is under threat, and we need to do something about that," Singh told the crowd, "This is a question of safeguarding the university as a place It is a struggle to ensure that this kind of thing is not taken casually."

Ambedkar University was host to a short documentary film directed by Sikha Sen, which explored the various translations and historical depictions of the Ramayan. The documentary was followed by a panel discussion aimed at debating how autonomous may an educational body be in teaching its syllabus, and how immune may it be to political pressure. "The issue before us is to decide whether to succumb to political pressure. In my opinion we have to fight this political pressure that pressurises syllabus decisions not on merit but political basis," faculty member Salil Mishra said.